Modibo Keïta the first president was a socialist who brooked no criticism until he was deposed in a coup led by Lt Moussa Traoré whose increasingly despotic rule was ended by a popular uprising and a coup in 1991 in which a certain Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta played an important role...
Vol 63 No 5 |
- RUSSIA
- AFRICA
Mali's ties with Moscow date back to the authoritarian Moussa Traoré presidency and have been continued by the current prime minister Choguel Maïga a vocal critic of France and defender of security ties with Russia...
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He was a loyal friend of the military dictator Moussa Traoré and remained true to him through a popular uprising and the coup that deposed him in 1991...
His is one of several recent deaths among retired West African leaders linked – in starkly contrasting ways – to the region's bumpy democratic history: other departures have included the Malian dictator Moussa Traoré and the man who deposed him Amadou Toumani Touré and Mauritania's first democratic president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi...
The CNSP was having none of it instead choosing veterans whose track record goes back to before the changes of 1991 that brought down Moussa Traoré (he died on 15 September this year) and put the likes of IBK and Tall into the political limelight...
His nominal superior N'Daw – who as a young officer resigned rather than serve as aide de camp to the then dictator Moussa Traoré – is known as a man of high principle...
He will however ignore the calls for change at his peril: if he does he may find himself removed by the street as happened to one of his predecessors Moussa Traoré in 1991 and more recently to Blaise Compaoré in Burkina Faso in 2014...
Touré is expected to return from exile for a 21 September national reconciliation ceremony with IBK and former Presidents Moussa Traoré Alpha Oumar Konaré and interim leader Dioncounda Traoré...
That would be in the mould of the national conference organised in Bamako after the overthrow of military dictator Moussa Traoré in 1990...
Diarra’s position as son-in-law of former military ruler Moussa Traoré also raised questions...